Maximal Torture Chamber
by Lady Shockbox
Summary: Lost perspective and scene from Chain of Command. Rattrap wonders why Dinobot is so afraid of torture chambers and he finds out more than he originally thought about the Predacons. Oneshot. Rattrap's POV. Beast Wars.


This was originally supposed to be a random drabble that I didn't think would end up posted, but I like it enough that I think it should. It's my first attempt at writing something from Rattrap's point of view too. I'm not really sure whether or not I got his accent right though. It was difficult to decide how I wanted to word things so that they would still make sense and sound like Rattrap at the same time. Regardless, I hope you guys like it. Transformers is not mine, but the premises behind this deleted perspective for the show is. Don't hesitate to point out ways that I can improve with my writing. Concrit is my friend.

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A **torture chamber** is a place where torture is carried out. **Torture,** according to the _United Nations Convention Against Torture,_ is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person…"

_~Wikipedia_

**i**

"Maximal _torture chamber!"_

'Dat was what started it.

Dinobot had last been seen with Optimus before the two of 'em went to go check out an anomaly that landed right where the standing stones were. We were just there earlier that day when the whole thing went up with the pretty fancy light show, y'know. It was pretty freaky, but it was weirder for the rest of us when we detected somethin' from space landing right where the site was. That was when Optimus said he and Dinobutt were gonna go check it out. I wasn't one to suggest that the Big Banana go alone with that Predacon saurian, but Rhinox just told me to shut my trap when I tried protesting. Eh. Optimus has no sense of self-preservation anyways. _Especially_ so since he was willing to go alone somewhere in the dead middle of the night on an unknown planet with a _Pred_. And to think I used to call _Cheetor_ the dumb one. Not to put Spots on the _spot_ or anything, but the kid _is_ kinda stupid. Anywho, we lost contact with Optimus not long after they left. Figured. I wasn't surprised at all. We would have gone to go lookin' for 'em if we didn't find Dinobot in stasis lock just outside the _Axalon's_ lift _without_ the boss monkey. If that wasn't bad news _enough_… I had a hunch that Lizard Breath knew what happed to Optimus, too. Rhinox, Cheetor, and dragged him over to the CR. It was around morning when he finally came to. We could have left his sorry aft out there to rust, but all the thanks we got was Dinobot waking up and spazzing on us like we were going to hurt him!

_Figures_ curiosity got the better of me. Good thing curiosity only kills cats, no offense to Spots or anything.

Feeling offended, I told Dinobot out loud that Maximals didn't _have_ torture chambers. I had to use some form of sarcasm to lighten the mood of course, so I mentioned offhand that it might not be a bad idea to get some. Dinobot snaped out of it and heaved a heavy, almost shaky sigh of relief while ignoring my jab _completely_. He looked pretty awful all of a sudden, y'know? Like he nearly had a spark attack after walking for three days straight with no recharge. Not that I know the feeling, but the description seems to fit. To make things freakier, he didn't say anything about my jab.

Damn, for a good half a click, Dinobot looked _scared_.

I asked him about it later when we got Optimus' distress call from inside the alien device that had landed at the standing stones. We had just left to try getting there before Megs and his cronies could. Megatron and his crew tried to attack the _Axalon_ after Primal said I was in charge over the radio and, after we kicked Megs' sorry purple aft with Sentinel, we immediately left to try saving Primal's butt. Call me nosey - I _am_ a rat after all - but I asked Dinobot if he had ever been in one while we were out of earshot of Rhinox and Cheetor.

"No, vermin. Keep your nose out of my business!"

Fragger. Even though he didn't want to talk, it was still possible to press him for info and have him spill. I've gotten into enough arguments with the guy to know that by now. I asked how he knew if they even existed. He ignored me for a few cycles not even bothering to glare at me - again, that was something he usually did that he wasn't doing now - but I thought about it myself. _Torture chambers?_ Why in the name of my great aunt Arcee would a Predacon go on and make up a story like that? They weren't afraid of Maximals, right?

I remembered Dinobot's face when he looked at us after he came to. _He_ was afraid.

…Were the Preds _afraid_ of us Maximals? _Seriously?_

I asked him that exactly. He finally looked down at me, but his face was scrunched up kinda funny. I had expected him to look mad or grouchy or something - that was how is always usually looked at me when I annoyed him - but the look on his face was pretty calm. Coming from Chopper Face, that was _freaky_.

"Why would you ask?"

I told him the honest truth. Really, I did. He snarled and looked away into space for a few cycles. Dinobot looked thoughtful almost. He didn't say anything for awhile and I was about to ask him if he even remembered what I asked before he looked back down at me again. He still looked calm, but there was almost something sad about the way he was looking at me. I honestly felt bad for him right about then.

"Ever since the Great War ended, we Predacons were deemed second class citizens in the wake of the fallen Decepticon empire. We were refused the basic rights the Maximals had and, despite a seemingly united Cybertron as it was written in the Pax Cybertronia, it was _far_ from that. Maximals refused us jobs, made out live on the streets, and slaughtered us in mass murders out of shear hate brought up by meaningless racism."

I told him it was bogus. He snarled angrily.

"Waspinator was orphaned and had to live on the streets because adoption agencies did not accept Predacons. _Then_ he had to sell himself on street corners for money to buy food as he got older because no Maximal would hire him. Is _that_ bogus?"

I gawked at him.

"Scorponok had been living in a homeless shelter as well. He had a mate so to speak, but he was only bonded for three or so months before the workshop his partner was working late at one night went up in flames. Arson. Scorponok told me that he saw two Maximal suspects flee the scene, but he was to occupied trying to get into the burning building to save to mate to care about them. He managed to get in only as far as the garage before it collapsed on his head. Of all the Transformers who heard the commotion and saw Scorponok run into the fire, it was only _Predacons_ who helped rescue him and put the fire out. Not Maximals. They all stood there and some went as far as to cheer whoever set the fire off. A fire control station had been called but it had been a Maximal one. They came seven megacycles _after_ the initial call but, by then, the fire was already out and Scorponok's mate was already dead. Insurance did not cover the damage. Scorponok had to live in a homeless shelter for three years before I found and hired him to join Megatron's crew."

I _kept_ gawking at him. Can you blame me?

Dinobot looked thoughtful again. "No one really knows where Tarantulas is from, but I would not be surprised if he was lurking around alleyways for a good portion of his life. Even Megatron had been in that state before he found a law school that accepted Predacon students. He passed the bar on his first try and with a perfect score on his essays too. Beside that, he only had Predacon clients because Maximals refused to hire a Predacon attorney. And did you know Terrorsaur was a victim of child abuse, vermin? He was a bastard child because his mother was a whore and was foolish enough to not use protection when she uplinked with her clients. He never knew his father. His mother tried to raise the money necessary for an abortion and she couldn't because she was too far in her pregnancy. She thought she would have no problem dumping him in an orphanage but, like Waspinator, they did not accept him. _Would _not_._ She despised Terrorsaur. If you look carefully, perhaps you could even see the scars on his arms from when she took her hatred out on him. Some of the burns go so deep that even the CR chamber cannot erase them. He ran away and lived in a bar as a bouncer, but then he managed to win a two year scholarship for school. Would you believe me if I told you it was for graphic arts? No? I thought so. He was raped by a professor before the first semester on his first year was over. _Then_ he was gang beat. His voice is as strained as it is for that reason. He was hit over the head with a tire iron and kicked in the throat. Then he was expelled for allegedly assaulting the same professor that raped him. He left and took up a job as a pilot, but he was never the same since."

_Horrified_ probably ain't the word I would use. _Mortified_ fits a little better, I think. I almost didn't have the guts to ask about him. I did, anyways.

"I was one of the more fortunate ones. My mother died as a result of an illness that Maximal hospitals refused to treat her for, but I did not know her well enough to miss her when she passed away. My father had been a warrior in case you have not guessed. He taught me my sense of honor and introduced me to the underground training rings where Predacons went to fight for what they believed just. Even after my father died, I still lived as a warrior. Megatron found me that way and he hired me to join his crew when he originally made the plans to steal the Golden Disk. He needed someone who could easily take out the guards at the Elders' Citadel Museum to speak. I was the one most suited for the job."

He looked at me hard and his eyed flashed with some kind of emotion. It might have been longing.

"You and I both know the Golden Disk holds the key to changing how we Predacons are treated. If we could restart the Great War, all the Predacons could unite and we could take the Maximal Elders by storm. We could finally gain the freedom we deserved."

It made sense, but I asked him why there were so few Predacons who were with Megatron's crew. I mean, before old chopper face decided to join us Maxis, there were six Preds in total on that wreck of a battle cruiser.

Dinobot said, "Everyone else was too afraid to even take up Megatron's offer."

I asked why.

"Because they were all afraid of what the Maximals would do if they were caught." He stopped talking to look up at the sky. He made a weird gesture with his claws. "Torture chambers."

When we finally got to the alien site, Megatron and his goons attacked us. 'Cept I couldn't call them goons anymore, y'know? I almost didn't have the guts to face Waspinator down. I remembered seeing him get pelted by Rhinox's ol' chain-guns-of-doom earlier the day before and just… I dunno. What Chopper Face said to me about him being a prostitute because he didn't have enough money to feed himself really bothered me. I mean, the guy's so innocent. I swear, I'd think he was a Maximal if he didn't have a Pred insignia. And Scorponok, well, now I can understand why the guy is always so twitchy and depressed looking. He had a whole burning building dropped on his head and he lost his bondmate. I'd be twitchy and depressed too if that happened to me. Terrorsaur always struck me as being just a bastard in general, but I hadn't expected him to be a bastard kid _literally_. A few times that day when I saw him, I tried to see if I could see any burn marks on his arms that Dinobutt told me about. I wasn't surprised that I didn't see 'em. I was probably too far away. Knowing he was raped too made me feel just as bad for him as the rest of them Preds. I mean, no one deserves that. Not even them.

Now I can't hate Megs as much as I did before. After all, he was only trying to get freedom for the Predacons so they wouldn't have to suffer anymore. After we rescued Optimus, I mentioned that to Dinobot while we walked home.

"I did not think you would see it that way, vermin."

At least I could tell he was feeling better. He made fun of me, right? I told him that I was sorry too.

Dinobot looked back down at me afterward. "Rattrap?"

"Put it this way, Dinobot," I said. "Remember what I said about them torture chambers earlier? I was being sarcastic, but now I don't think they're such a good idea anymore."

**Fin**


End file.
